Ex-sergeant’s sentence for killing wife stands after review decision
ABID to have a retired policeman who killed his wife locked up for longer has failed. Former Northumbria Police Sergeant Alan Claxton was convicted of manslaughter after a jury heard how he caused Wendy Claxton to fall down stairs at their Gateshead home.
Newcastle Crown Court was told Wendy, 70, also a retired officer with the force, suffered injuries likened to those seen in car crashes when she fell to her death at the house in Dunston n September 2019.
Claxton, 74, claimed Wendy fell by accident, but he was found guilty of causing her death by jurors and jailed for nine years in February.
Soon after, The Journal revealed how the sentence passed by judge Mrs Justice Foster was referred to the Attorney General’s Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme (ULS), when victims of crime, members of the public, and the Crown Prosecution Service can ask for certain crown court sentences to be reviewed if they believe they are too lenient.
The Attorney General’s Office has 28 days, from the date the sentence was passed to decide whether the sentences should be referred to the Court of Appeal for review. The decision has been taken not to send Claxton’s case to the higher court, and his original sentence stands.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how Claxton had been convicted of offences against Wendy in 1991, 1999 and 2001 and there were numerous other call-outs due to his drunken, violent and unpredictable behaviour.
Jurors were told how, after killing his wife of 45 years, Claxton took her body upstairs, partly undressed her and put her on her bed in a bid to make it look like she died in bed.
But a post mortem examination revealed Wendy had suffered a broken spine, 19 fractures to her ribs and a severed aorta, which had caused massive internal bleeding.
In jailing Claxton, judge Mrs Justice Foster said: “I’m sure you forcefully manhandled her, pushing her and/or roughing her up as you had in the past and she was propelled with significant force into the newel post and she fell to the floor.
“She would have been either instantaneously dead or in excruciating agony for such time she survived. You took her body from there and placed it on the bed. You took off her tracksuit bottoms and pants to make it look like she did so, to construct a story she had just died in bed. I’m sure you put her on the bed and sought to cover up your involvement in her death. You took no steps to summon help nor did you try to find a pulse or administer first aid.”
The judge said Claxton had “cruelly” lied and sought to claim his wife was drunk. She was not a heavy drinker and post mortem blood tests proved his claim was false. She added: “Your history shows a continuous story of violence while in drink.”
Francis FitzGibbon KC, defending, said there is no evidence as to whether it was a “conscious push or shove or a flailing arm” that caused Wendy to fall down the stairs.
He said Claxton had been in the grip of alcoholism for many years and said while it doesn’t excuse what he did, it provides context to it.